Food Servers, Nonrestaurant in Vermont
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,342
after federal, FICA and Vermont tax
Tax takes
$6,198
16.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,433
Vermont costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Vermont — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$37,540
Kept after tax
$31,342
Worth in national money
$32,433
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Vermont is one of the better-paying states for food servers, nonrestaurant. The middle earner takes $37,540, which ranks 9 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 6.17% above the national middle.
- Against 453 occupations Vermont publishes, food servers, nonrestaurant lands at 429. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Vermont does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $37,540 you keep $31,342, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $32,433 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $40,840, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Vermont ranks 9 of 51 states publishing a median for food servers, nonrestaurant, at $37,540 — about 6.17% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Vermont, this work ranks 429 of 453 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Vermont income tax, retained pay for food servers, nonrestaurant on $37,540 is $31,342. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $32,433 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $40,840 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,540 |
| Top tenth earn over | $54,380 |
| This salary | $37,540 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Vermont | $31,342 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,343 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$850 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $36,294 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,028 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,540 as a midpoint for Vermont, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $32,970 and the ninetieth is $54,380 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Vermont's $31,342, worked from $37,540. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 429 of 453.
- Two cautions on $32,433, the adjusted value of that $37,540 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Vermont. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 429 of 453 locally.
- The Vermont median of $37,540 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $32,970 to $54,380. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Vermont take-home of $31,342, on $37,540 for work ranking 429 of 453 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 429 of 453 in the state.
- This $32,433 adjusted figure, worked from $37,540, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 429 of 453 in the state. The occupation ranks 429 of 453 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $40,840, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $32,970 at the tenth percentile, $54,380 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Vermont is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $32,433 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Vermont adds its own income tax on top — which is why $31,342 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Vermont is $40,840. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($32,970 to $54,380) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Vermont's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $32,433 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $31,342 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.